Whilst I obviously will vote for the sublime and cohesive Friends album over that messy filler filled affair The Beatles, I have to say that Julia is a beautiful song and easily stands up against Wilson's best works in terms of songwriting.

Speaking of Friends, I was recently listening to the MiC discs, and I noticed how good the ‘Meant For You’ Alternate version sounded. Made me realize just how good a remix/remaster of this album will sound (if one comes down the pike).

I think I will always prefer the original mix, but it would be great to hear this album with more clarity and atmosphere like the MiC song offers.

Speaking of Friends, I was recently listening to the MiC discs, and I noticed how good the ‘Meant For You’ Alternate version sounded. Made me realize just how good a remix/remaster of this album will sound (if one comes down the pike).

I think I will always prefer the original mix, but it would be great to hear this album with more clarity and atmosphere like the MiC song offers.

Totally agree. The original Friends stereo mix is great by 60s standards, but all the vocals are mono in the centre channel and the instruments are mostly kinda hard panned left or right to the same degree so it loses some texture. The Friends a capella mix shows just how much cool detail is buried in there when you open up the vocal tracks and give them the proper stereo treatment.

Speaking of Friends, I was recently listening to the MiC discs, and I noticed how good the ‘Meant For You’ Alternate version sounded. Made me realize just how good a remix/remaster of this album will sound (if one comes down the pike).

I think I will always prefer the original mix, but it would be great to hear this album with more clarity and atmosphere like the MiC song offers.

Totally agree. The original Friends stereo mix is great by 60s standards, but all the vocals are mono in the centre channel and the instruments are mostly kinda hard panned left or right to the same degree so it loses some texture. The Friends a capella mix shows just how much cool detail is buried in there when you open up the vocal tracks and give them the proper stereo treatment.

Yeah, I feel like that goes for everything this band did in the 60s and 70s. I always loved ‘Don’t Worry Baby’, but when I heard that 2009 stereo remix I was blown away at just how amazing the vocals sounded in stereo.

Speaking of Friends, I was recently listening to the MiC discs, and I noticed how good the ‘Meant For You’ Alternate version sounded. Made me realize just how good a remix/remaster of this album will sound (if one comes down the pike).

I think I will always prefer the original mix, but it would be great to hear this album with more clarity and atmosphere like the MiC song offers.

Totally agree. The original Friends stereo mix is great by 60s standards, but all the vocals are mono in the centre channel and the instruments are mostly kinda hard panned left or right to the same degree so it loses some texture. The Friends a capella mix shows just how much cool detail is buried in there when you open up the vocal tracks and give them the proper stereo treatment.

Yeah, I feel like that goes for everything this band did in the 60s and 70s. I always loved ‘Don’t Worry Baby’, but when I heard that 2009 stereo remix I was blown away at just how amazing the vocals sounded in stereo.

Here’s to hoping we get a Friends boxset/release this year!

I'd be surprised if it doesn't happen, just hoping the original being stereo doesn't rule it out for a full on remix!

So it’s my huge hope that Linett and Boyd already have a remix done waiting to be released. On MIC we were given a taste of stereo from the Wild Honey album, which was then released as a full stereo remix for us last year. I’m really hoping that since they did the same for ‘Meant For You’ on MIC we’ll also see the same thing happen with the Friends album (being released as a remix). Time will tell.

One of my all time favourite Beach Boys albums...3 vinyl copies and 2 c.d.'s 'in' as I'm guilty of wearing the darned things out. The white album has some great songs on it...but there's 'Revolution 9' which ... if John had been HONEST ... would have more appropriately been entitled 'Devolution 1'. The sense of entitlement which caused him to think that he could waste our time with that out and out drivel and bull-sh!t is inescapable and unacceptable. And that he carried the idea forward placing more of this electro-waste on the 2 virgins horror show...both sides no less suggests that the white album would be better off it it hadn't happened at all.

Friends was # 13 in the UK. # 126 is the U.S. Brits are far more savvy than their breakaway cousins. The weak points on Friends? Meant For You could have been stronger with a better lead vocal. Be Still and Diamond Head aren't the best tunes ever either.

Whitey...the album tosses dreck like the aforementioned Rev 9, Wild Honey Pie? [I'd have sued.], Julia...which to me sounded like pure unadulterated 'filler', Honey Pie and the cringe-worthy Goodnight onto the fly pile. Then there were so-so songs like Cry Baby Cry, Long x 3, I Will and the most Miracle-Whipped version of Jamaican Ska ever...Ob La Di.

Toss Do It Again and Never Learn Not to Love in and it's a wash re: Hey Jude which is just WAY TOO EFFIN' LONG...like shut-up already and I'm going with the Beach Boys...by a nostril. Lady Madonna? The Inner Light? Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. All that momentum gathered in 1967 set adrift by individualistic 'fabbie' projects. NO single Beatle can measure up to Brian Wilson. Sorry Paul. WAY TOO MANY silly love songs. [and you ran out of anything that was really all that interesting about 30 years ago.]

Anyway...again...the Boys by part of a nose.

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"Add Some...Music...To Your Day. I do. It's the only way to fly. Well...what was I gonna put here? An apple a day keeps the doctor away? Hum me a few bars." Lee Marshall [2014]

One of my all time favourite Beach Boys albums...3 vinyl copies and 2 c.d.'s 'in' as I'm guilty of wearing the darned things out. The white album has some great songs on it...but there's 'Revolution 9' which ... if John had been HONEST ... would have more appropriately been entitled 'Devolution 1'. The sense of entitlement which caused him to think that he could waste our time with that out and out drivel and bull-sh!t is inescapable and unacceptable. And that he carried the idea forward placing more of this electro-waste on the 2 virgins horror show...both sides no less suggests that the white album would be better off it it hadn't happened at all.

That's a good point, and one I used to almost give my vote to The Beach Boys. The White Album includes the worst track in Beatles history, and one of the biggest time wasters ever put on vinyl by a great band.

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Any opinions posted by me regarding the music of The Beach Boys, and their members, is in no way a show of disrespect towards any member of The Beach Boys, past or present.

Funny thing though, a couple years ago I would’ve equated ‘Revolution #9’ with ‘Transcendental Meditation’ in terms of how both songs kinda jolted and irritated me from the vibe of both albums. But after years of hating it, now I really dig ‘TM’, though I don’t think anything will help me appreciate ‘Revolution #9’.

Funny thing though, a couple years ago I would’ve equated ‘Revolution #9’ with ‘Transcendental Meditation’ in terms of how both songs kinda jolted and irritated me from the vibe of both albums. But after years of hating it, now I really dig ‘TM’, though I don’t think anything will help me appreciate ‘Revolution #9’.

TM is an actual song while R9 is pretentious garbage.

When I first got into the Friends album, I didn't care for TM as it didn't seem to fit on the album, but taken on its own, I think it's a pretty good song.

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Any opinions posted by me regarding the music of The Beach Boys, and their members, is in no way a show of disrespect towards any member of The Beach Boys, past or present.

Funny thing though, a couple years ago I would’ve equated ‘Revolution #9’ with ‘Transcendental Meditation’ in terms of how both songs kinda jolted and irritated me from the vibe of both albums. But after years of hating it, now I really dig ‘TM’, though I don’t think anything will help me appreciate ‘Revolution #9’.

TM is an actual song while R9 is pretentious garbage.

When I first got into the Friends album, I didn't care for TM as it didn't seem to fit on the album, but taken on its own, I think it's a pretty good song.

Yeah, I guess I should’ve classified R9 as a track instead of a song.

I used to hate hearing TM end the album, but its kinda funny in a way how backwards the whole song is to itself and the album. The whole Friends album is quiet and peaceful, a real chill trip, likewise the act of TM is meant to be quiet and peaceful, yet that song just jolts you from that peace, and its core message is about peace yet it sounds like a trainwreck (decibel wise, that is). Instead of being annoyed I kinda chuckle when Friends comes to close with that song...it has its own little charm.

Funny thing though, a couple years ago I would’ve equated ‘Revolution #9’ with ‘Transcendental Meditation’ in terms of how both songs kinda jolted and irritated me from the vibe of both albums. But after years of hating it, now I really dig ‘TM’, though I don’t think anything will help me appreciate ‘Revolution #9’.

TM is an actual song while R9 is pretentious garbage.

When I first got into the Friends album, I didn't care for TM as it didn't seem to fit on the album, but taken on its own, I think it's a pretty good song.

Yeah, I guess I should’ve classified R9 as a track instead of a song.

I used to hate hearing TM end the album, but its kinda funny in a way how backwards the whole song is to itself and the album. The whole Friends album is quiet and peaceful, a real chill trip, likewise the act of TM is meant to be quiet and peaceful, yet that song just jolts you from that peace, and its core message is about peace yet it sounds like a trainwreck (decibel wise, that is). Instead of being annoyed I kinda chuckle when Friends comes to close with that song...it has its own little charm.

I was going to say the exact same thing! I've actually taken to listening to Friends lately when I'm feeling stressed. I put it on late at night, in the dark, and it calms me to sleep...until TM wakes me up like a night terror!

Funny thing though, a couple years ago I would’ve equated ‘Revolution #9’ with ‘Transcendental Meditation’ in terms of how both songs kinda jolted and irritated me from the vibe of both albums. But after years of hating it, now I really dig ‘TM’, though I don’t think anything will help me appreciate ‘Revolution #9’.

TM is an actual song while R9 is pretentious garbage.

When I first got into the Friends album, I didn't care for TM as it didn't seem to fit on the album, but taken on its own, I think it's a pretty good song.

Yeah, I guess I should’ve classified R9 as a track instead of a song.

I used to hate hearing TM end the album, but its kinda funny in a way how backwards the whole song is to itself and the album. The whole Friends album is quiet and peaceful, a real chill trip, likewise the act of TM is meant to be quiet and peaceful, yet that song just jolts you from that peace, and its core message is about peace yet it sounds like a trainwreck (decibel wise, that is). Instead of being annoyed I kinda chuckle when Friends comes to close with that song...it has its own little charm.

I've come to view the TM closer for the Friends album kinda the way Led Zeppelin ends their epic song Stairway to Heaven.

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Any opinions posted by me regarding the music of The Beach Boys, and their members, is in no way a show of disrespect towards any member of The Beach Boys, past or present.

What makes it hard to decide is that I've never had love for the White Album, thinking that the Boys were trying to pull a fast one on their fans. It didn't have to be a double album, there's a lot of junk that could have been tossed out.I have intense dislike for a number of songs - Happiness is a Warm Gun, Helter Skelter (explained in an earlier post why, nothing to do with Manson), Sexy Sadie, Rocky Raccoon... And yes, Revolution 9 (though I do like them saying "block that kick, block that kick" at the end lol).

So I need to decide how much better the remainder of the ones I consider worthwhile stack up against the BBs. Will get back.

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"No White Flags." - Team Gleason

"(Brian) got into this really touching music with songs like 'In My Room', and 'Good Vibrations' was amazing. The melodies are so beautiful, almost perfect. I began to realize he was one of the most gifted writers of our generation." - Paul Simon

What makes it hard to decide is that I've never had love for the White Album, thinking that the Boys were trying to pull a fast one on their fans. It didn't have to be a double album, there's a lot of junk that could have been tossed out.I have intense dislike for a number of songs - Happiness is a Warm Gun, Helter Skelter (explained in an earlier post why, nothing to do with Manson), Sexy Sadie, Rocky Raccoon... And yes, Revolution 9 (though I do like them saying "block that kick, block that kick" at the end lol).

So I need to decide how much better the remainder of the ones I consider worthwhile stack up against the BBs. Will get back.

I agree that The White Album is bloated. As a result, it's probably the Beatles album I listen to the least (other than Yellow Submarine). But, I think it might have a side of filler out of four, so that's three sides of very good to amazing music.

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Any opinions posted by me regarding the music of The Beach Boys, and their members, is in no way a show of disrespect towards any member of The Beach Boys, past or present.

Personal opinion, but I strongly disagree! Part of it stems from the fact that Friends (along with WH and 20/20) is my favorite BB album (WH may surpass it now with the stereo mix), part of it stems from the fact that I just don't "get" Revolution 9.

Personal opinion, but I strongly disagree! Part of it stems from the fact that Friends (along with WH and 20/20) is my favorite BB album (WH may surpass it now with the stereo mix), part of it stems from the fact that I just don't "get" Revolution 9.

I think Friends is fairly underrated. Though I know some would call it overrated haha.

Billy, do you think a stereo remix of Friends would edge it past Wild Honey in your ranking?